Controversial Gold Coast Suns defender Campbell Brown has been released by the club in the aftermath of a Los Angeles nightclub altercation that left team-mate Steven May with a broken jaw.

The club held a press conference on Wednesday to outline the results of an investigation into the incident.

Brown described the incident, that he acknowledged had ended his AFL career, as a "spur of the moment mistake".

"I don't think I have a problem. There have been a couple of incidents over a 12 or 13 year career. Clearly I've overstepped the mark on occasion and this incident was one of them," Brown said.

"Steven and I are friends. We've apologised to each other, I've checked in on him to see how he's going pre and post-surgery and we will continue to be friends.

"It was a spur of the moment mistake that if I could go back and change I would, but you can't do that in life.

"Obviously I'm disappointed. This is not the way any player wants to finish their career.

"I'm more than happy with the way the process has happened. I take responsibility for my actions on the night and clearly it's finished my career early."

Brown said he wanted to be remembered as a player who had "given everything to two footy clubs, trained as hard as I could and tried to play as hard as I could" even though he acknowledged he had "crossed the line a few times".

Suns chief executive Travis Auld said the decision to release Brown from his playing contract with the club came after a thorough and fair club investigation into events in Los Angeles.

"Campbell has cooperated fully with the club's investigation, and while he is understandably disappointed to be finishing his career with the Gold Coast on such a note, he has not, at any stage, shirked his responsibilities," Auld said.

Brown, a premiership player with Hawthorn in 2008, has become renowned for his hard style of play throughout his career, often falling out of favour with the tribunal in the process.

The player lists for all 18 AFL clubs were finalised at the conclusion of last week's preseason and rookie draft, meaning that Brown would be ineligible to play in the 2014 season.